STARLight Project chosen as European photonics consortium
STMicroelectronics is to lead 24 technology companies and universities to establish Europe as a technology leader in 300mm silicon photonics (SiPho) technology in the STARLight project.
STARLight, selected by the European Commission under the EU CHIPS Joint Undertaking, aims to develop application-driven solutions focusing on key industry sectors such as data centres, AI clusters, telecommunications, and cars.
Within these application solutions, STARLight consortium partners will tackle key challenges including creating modulators capable of operating at speeds exceeding 200 Gbps per lane; developing efficient and reliable on-chip lasers; and the exploration of advanced materials through SOITEC, CEA-LETI, Imec, Universite Paris-Saclay, III-V Lab, and Lumiphase. Optimising packaging and integration of PICs with electronic circuits will be another strand.
The STARLight project has an initial focus to build datacom demonstrators for data centres, based on PIC100 technology, capable of handling up to 200Gb/s with key actors including ST, SICOYA and THALES. It will also develop prototypes for free-space optical transmission systems, designed for both space and terrestrial communication.
Additionally, the project will build on the experience of major contributors to shape the research effort towards a 400Gbps per lane optical demonstrator using new materials, targeting the next generation of pluggable optics.
For AI, the STARLight project aims to develop a cutting-edge photonic processor optimised for tensor operations, such as matrix vector multiplication and multiply-accumulate, with superior characteristics in terms of size, data processing speed, and energy consumption compared to existing technologies. Since neural networks – the core algorithms behind AI – rely heavily on tensor operations, enhancing their efficiency is critical for AI processing performance.
For the telecommunications industry, Ericsson will focus on two concepts to improve mobile network efficiency. The first involves the development of an integrated switch to enable optical offload within Radio Access Networks, allowing for more efficient handling of data traffic. The second concept explores Radio over Fibre technology to relocate power-intensive processing ASICs away from antenna units, thus providing enhanced capacity and savings in embodied CO2. Additionally, MBRYONICS will develop a free space to fibre interface at the reception of Free Space Optical (FSO) communication.
STARLight will also look at sensing applications in cars, and the close relationships of STEERLIGHT, a LiDAR sensors maker, with leading car manufacturers will help make this an industrial reality. Within this THALES will develop sensors that accurately generate, distribute, detect, and process signals with intricate waveforms. More broadly, the outcomes of this part of the project are also intended to benefit the wider ecosystem of indoor and outdoor autonomous robot manufacturers.
Remi El-Ouazzane, president, microcontrollers, digital ICs and RF products group at STMicroelectronics said: “Silicon Photonics technology is critical to put Europe at the crossroads to the AI factory of the future and the STARLight project represents a significant step for the entire value chain in Europe, driving innovation and collaboration among leading technology companies.
"By focusing on application-based results, the project aims to deliver cutting-edge solutions for data centres, AI clusters, telecommunications, and automotive markets. With well-recognised pan-European partners, the STARLight consortium is set to lead the next generation of silicon photonics technologies and applications.”
